I can't find it now but there was an article in a mag put out by wfmu that chronicled 1974 as worst year in music:
Billy Don't Be A Hero
The Night Chicago Died
Seasons In The Sun
You're Having My Baby
And popular then were:
Jim Croce, Cher, Paul McCartney, John Denver, Helen Reddy, Harry Chapin

Between Fantomas and that album he did with Kaada, Patton's got at least a dozen whisper credits.

Good timing, this just came to my mailbox today via Netflix.  My 3 cats will be happy to check this one out.  They were not so happy with our last viewing experience, Satantango.

Is Blue Hawaii the one where Elvis gets thrown in jail and sings a "blues" that goes "I'm a kissing cousin to a ripe pineapple . . . I'm in the can."?  That's one of those lines I've had stuck in my head and sometimes wish I didn't.

That's an excellent list.  Sound of Waves is good but, if you haven't already, you should read Temple of The Golden Pavilion and The Sea of Fertility tetralogy (Spring Snow, Runaway Horses, The Temple of Dawn and The Decay of The Angel).  I re-read the tetralogy every few years and take away new insights and…

If you're in love with him as a thinker you should check out his novels, Les Enfants Terribles and Thomas the Impostor (or whatever that is in French).  Worthwhile.  Then, check out his protoge, Raymond Radiguet - beautiful sensitive writing.

Finished reading:
Life A User's Manual by Georges Perec - Fantastic read, like a hundred books in one.
Wake Up With A Stranger by Fletcher Flora - Flora's typical sardonic writing.  Not bad though not as good as his masterpiece, Park Avenue Tramp.
Now reading:
Omensetter's Luck by William Gass - I've read The Tunnel and…

Great book but I know I'll never finish it.  Made me realize that Bach was truly a freak-of-nature genius - no one comes close.

Uh, I can't see past the fact that he was a Mouseketeer.

McSorley's got too popular with the frat boy crowd long ago.  There used to be a real dive bar further up on 2nd Ave.  You had to walk down some stairs to a long room with no windows to distract from the main purpose of getting pie-eyed. Smelled of piss, sawdust on the floor, cheap beer and old, grumpy guys with large…

The best Naked City was "A Case Study of Two Savages" with Rip Torn and Tuesday Weld as a couple of crazy southerners in the big city.  Violent for its time.
I lived near where many of these were filmed - I pawned a typewriter at my corner pawn shop in the East Village in the same shop Peter Fonda and Robert Blake…

Yes, the Mabuse films are wonderful and I agree with Seankgallagher about "Spies".  That film was so stylish - you could see Lang's art background at work.

Slow, reading month for me.  I'm halfway through Georges Perec's Life: A User's Manual - very good.  Also halfway through Alex Ross's collection of New Yorker essays, Listen To This.  Good essays on Schubert, Radiohead and Bjork so far.

I can't believe I didn't know that there are more Wild Cards book since the original run back in the 80's-90's.  I loved the first one but wished they had lingered longer in the post war/McCarthy period instead of jumping to contemporary times.  How do these new Tor books measure up to the originals?
And for the…

The Third Man and The Fallen Idol - yes, both are great.  But you can't deny the dark, gloomy, fatalism of Odd Man Out.

10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD"
20 GOTO 10

Is that the America as desert book?  I liked it very much.  Drowned World, Crystal World and Crash I rate higher than Hello America, though.  Vermilion Sands is my favorite short story collection of Ballard's.

There's a documentary, Shanghai Jim, available on http://www.ubu.com/film/bal… that covers this same material.  Ballard visits Shanghai for the first time since childhood and tours what remains of the internment camp.  Also, talks about his time as a medical student.  His novels live on their own, of course, but this…

All 3 Krasznahorkai novels are excellent but a good order may be The Melancholy of Resistance as it has a storyline to hang onto and a consistent mood, then Satantango which has wonderful characterizations and finally War And War.  Once you've glommed onto Krasznahorkai's unique writing style, super-long sentences…

Just finished:
Animalinside by Laszlo Krasznahorkai - quick, fun little read but not as essential as his 3 novels that have been translated to English: The Melancholy of Resistance, Satantango and War And War.  All 3 highly recommended.
Extinction by Thomas Bernhard - supposed to be his final great opus but seemed to me…